Air circulation means for upright refrigerated cabinets



Oct. 6, 1959 L. F. BARROERO 2,907,l86

AIR CIRCULATION MEANS FOR UPRIGHT REFRIGERATED CABINETS Filed March 31, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INV ENT OR. F/G '2 zaa/5 f: 54290500 United States Patent AIR CIRCULATION MEANS FORUPR-IGHT REFRIGERATED CABINETS Louis F. Bari-nero, San Leandra, Calif. Application March' 31 `1958Serial No. 725,Z56 9 Claims. (Cl. 62--408)' This nvention relates to refrigerated cabinets, and more particularly to means to circulate cooling air through an upright refrigerated cabinet.

Refrigerated freezer display cabinets have come nto extensive use in grocery stores and the like for storage, display and sale of frozen foods. However, most such cabinets have been of the top opening variety rather than the more convenient upright type with front opening doors, primarily because of the difliculty of maintaining the below freezing temperatures with the upright cabinets if the doors should be left open by customers, or even through normal `opening and closing of these doors. The difficulty of maintaining upright` cabinets at a satisfactory temperature lies in the necessity for using open front storage compartments. When the door is opened, the cold' air spills out of the bottom of the compartments while warm ar from the 'room enters the top of the compartment to replace the spilled air. This quickly leads to excessive frosting within the compartment as well as requiring excess energy to chill the entering air to below freezing. 'Ihe present inventon overcomes this problem by circulating the cold air within the cabinet in such a manner that very little cold air spills from the. cabinet, even though the doors may be left open, thus requiring a minimum of energy to maintain the desired low tempera'ure and also preventing excessive fro sting within the cabinet.

It is the primary object of this invention to. provide a cold' air circulation system for upright freezers in which the cold air is forced from side to side across the open front storage compartments of the cabinet in such manner as to prevent cold air from spilling from the cabinet and to prevent warm room air from entering the compartments.

Another object is to provide an air circulation system for upright refrigerated cabinets which comprises a horizontally disposed compartment having end' walls and an open front, each of said end walls having a slot therethrough, means forming a closed duct exteriorly of said compartment from one slot to the other slot, means for drawing air from the rear of said compartment through said one slot into said duct and for blowing air from said duct into the rear of said compartment through said other slot.

A further object is to provide an air circulation system for an upright refrigerated cabinet which comprises a horizontally disposed compartment having* first and second end walls and an open front, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough extending from the front to the rear thereof, means forming a closed duct exteriorly of said compartment from the first end wall slot to the second end wall slot, blower means in said duct for blowing air from said duct into said compartment through said one slot and across said compartment and for drawing said air from said compartment through the other slot back into said duct, air cooling means disposed in said duct, vertically disposed' louvers adjacent said first end wall slot for directing flow of air Patented Oct. 6, 1959 from said' duct into the rear of. said compartm'ent, and vertically disposed louvers adjacent said second end wall slot for directing air flow from the rear of said compartment into said duct.

'Other objectsand advantages will become apparent in the course of the following detail'ed description.

In the drawings, forming' a part of this application, and in which like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout the same,

Fig.. 1 is afront elevational View of a freezer cabinet embodyng the invention, with parts cut away to show the internal Construction thereof.

Fig. 2- is an elevational sectional View, taken on line 2-2 of'Fig. 1.

Fig; 3 is a sectional View, ill'ustrating the direction of storage compartments.

Referring now to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 indicates generally the upright insulated freezer cabinet having sliding access doors 11 and 12 on the front thereof. Food storage compartments 13, 14, 15 and 16 are formed within the cabinet by the vertical end walls 17 and 18 which are spaced from the cabinet end walls 19 and 20, and by the horizontal shelves 21, 22, 23 and 24 and the bottom 25 of the inside of the cabinet. The end walls and shelves extend completely to the inside back wall* 27' of the cabinet. Each of the compartments is completely open at the front thereof, to permit articles to be easily stored therein or removed'therefrom through the access doors.

As will be seen, the compartment end walls 17 and 18, the top shelf 21, the cabinet end walls 19 and 20`and the inside cabinet top 26 form a closed duct 28 outside the' storage compartments extending from end wall 18 around the top of the compartments to end wall 17.

A conventional refrigerated coil unit 29- is disposed within and between the* ends of duct 28, this coil unit being supplied with a refrigerant by conventional refrigerating means (not shown) located in the bottom of cabinet 10, as is customary. A drain hole 30 in the coil unit permits condensate to drain from the unit to outside the cabinet.

An air inlet slot 31 is formed in the end' wall 1 7 of each of the storage compartments, the slot extending from front to back of the end wall. A baflle member 33 is hinged to the end wall 17 below each slot 31, with such hinge connection being sufciently stifl so that when the bafile is swung outwardly from the end wall into a desired position within duct 28 it will remain in that position.

Vertically disposed lo uver plates 32 are mounted on end wall 17 adjacent the slots 31, and as is shown most clearly in Fig. 3, are inclined rearwardly into the compartments so as to direct incoming air through slot 31 to therear of each compartment.

In the same mani-ler, the end wall 18 has discharge slots 34 formed therethrough, one slot being provided for each compartment. Adjustable hinged baffles 35 and rearwardly inclined louver plates 36 are similarly provided for each slot.

A first blower unit, 37, shown herein as four ganged squirrel cage type blowers 37a, is disposed within duct 28 between the coil unit 29 and the inlet slots 31, and a second similar blower unit 38 is in duct 28 between the coil unit 29 and the discharge slots 34. These blower units are shown as being belt driven by a single electric motor 39 and belts 40 and 41, although individual motors might be used for each unit, if desired.

In operation, the blower unit 37 sucks cold air through the coil unit 29 and blows this air down duct 28 directly to the inlet bath'es 33, which each divets a portion of the air into the compartments 13 to 16. As the cold taken on line 3 3 of F'g. 1, air flow through one of the D air passes through the inlet slots 31, it is deflected by louvers 32 towards the rear of each compartment, as indicated by the air flow arrows in Fig. 3. The adjustable battles 33 allow the inlet of air to be regulated in each compartment so that sufficient air flow is created across each compartment, With a sufflcient rate of flow, the incoming air is directed towards the rear of the compartmenh and fans out very little towards the front of the compartment, so that there is practically no spillage of the cold air from the open front of the inlet end of the compartment. As the horizontally moving air approaches the discharge end of the compartment, it fans out towards the front and ordinarly would spill from the compartment. However, this moving air now comes under the influence 'of the low pressure created by blower unit38, which low pressure is created more towards the rear of the compartment, due to the action of the louvers 36 in directing flow from the rear of the compartment back into the duct. Thus, the fanned out cold air will be drawn back into the compartment to discharge through the discharge slots. As is apparent, the blower units must be operated at a sufficient speed in A order to provide the above described air flow. If the flow is insuflicent, the cold ar coming through the inlet slots will not be propelled with suficient force to come under the influence of the discharge slots, and will simply spill, partially or completely, out of the open front of the compartment. However, it has been found that when the air flow is sufficiently great, the air will flow as above described with practically no intermixture of the cold air within the compartments and the warm room air outside of the compartments.

Thus, the cold air is maintained in the storage compartments by positively forcing the air to flow horizontally across the compartments in what amounts to a series of superposed separate open front Channels. Since the cold air does not spill out of the compartments, no warm ambient air is drawn into the compartments even though the access doors may be left open. It has been found that a single blower unit can operate satisfactorily to give the desired air flow, but much superior results are obtained if two such units are employed. If only a single blower is employed, it is ditficult to maintain both a desirable high pressure at each inletslot as well as a low pressure at the discha'ge slot because of the pressure drop due to the overall length of the duct 28 as well as the pressure drop through the coil unit 29. In the present embodiment, however, the blower unit 37 discharges at high pressure essentially directly into each inlet slot, and the blower unit 38 has its inlet side essentially directly connected to each discharge slot to provide a low pressure zone thereat, and the push-pull action of these two units provides an effective and suflicient horizontal flow of cold air through the compartments.

It is to be realized that the above described embodiment of the inventon is a preferred embodirnnt, and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the attached claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Pateut is:

l. An apparatus of the character described comprising a compartnent having first and second end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough, means forming a closed duct exteriorly of said compartment from one slot to the other slot, blower means in said duct for blowing air into said compartment through said first end Wall slot and for drawing air from said compartment through said second end wall slot, a vertically disposed louver operatively associated with said first end wall slot for directing flow of air from said duct into the rear of said compartment through said first slot, and a vertically disposed louver operatively associated with said second end wall slot for directing air flow from the rear of said Compartment back into said duct.

2. An apparatus as set forth in claim l further including an air cooling means disposed in said duct.

3. An apparatus of the character described comprising a compartment having first and second end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough extending from the front to the rear of said compartment, means forming a closed duct exteriorly of said compartment from the first end wall slot to the second end wall slot, blower means in said duct for blowing air from said duct into said compartment through said one slot and across said compartment and for drawing said air from said compartment through the other slot back into said duct, air cooling means disposed in said duct, vertically disposed louvers adjacent said first end wall slot for directing flow of air from said duct toward the rear of said compartment, and vertically disposed louvers adjacent said second end wall slot for directing air flow from the rear of said Compartment into said duct.

4. An apparatus of the character described comprising a compartment having first and second end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough extending from the front to the rear of said compartment, means forming a closed duct exteriorly of said compartment from the first end Wall slot to the second end wall slot, first blower means in said duct for blowing air directly into said Compartment through said first slot, second blower means in said duct for drawing air directly from said compartment through said other slot back into said duct, air cooling means in said duct between said first and second blower means, vertically disposed louvers mounted adjacent said first end wall slot for directing flow of air from said duct toward the rear of said compartment, and vertically disposed louvers mounted adjacent said second end wall slot for directing air flow from the rear of said compartment into said duct.

5. An apparatus of the character described comprsing a plurality of horizontally disposed storage compartments stacked one above another, each compartment having first and second vertical end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough, a closed duct exterior of said compartments, said duct having one end thereof in communication with each of said first end wall slots and having the other end thereof in communication with each of said second end wall slots, blower means in said duct for blowing air directly through said first end wall slots into each compartment and across said compartments and for directly drawing said air from each of said compartments through said second end wall slots back into said duct, a vertically disposed louver mounted adjacent each of said first end wall slots for directing flow of air from said duct toward the rear of said compa'tments, a vertically disposed louver mounted adjacent each of said second end wall slots for directing flow of air from the rear of said` compartments back into said duct, and an air cooling means in said duct.

6. An apparatus of the character described comprising a plurality of horizontally disposed storage compartments stacked one above another, each compartment having first and second vertical end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough, a closed duct exterior of said compartments, said duct having one end thereof in communication with each of said first end wall slots and having the other end thereof in communication with each of said second end wall slots, blower means in said duct for blowing air directly through said first end wall slots into each compartment and across said compartments and for directly drawing said air from each of said compartments through said second end wall slots back into said duct, an adsaid end walls adjacent each of said end wall slots and projecting into said duct for regulating the flow of air through each of said slots, a vertically dsposed louver mounted adjacent each of said first end wall slots for directing flow of air from said duct toward the rear of said compartnents, a vertica'lly dsposed louver' mounted adjacent each of said second end -wall slots for directing flow of air from the :fear of said compartments back into said duct, and an air cooling means in said duct.

7. An apparatus of the character described comprising a' plurality' of horizontally dsposed storage compartments stacked one above another', each compartinen't having first and second vertical end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough, a closed duct exterior of said compartments, said duct having one end thereof in communication with each of said first end wall slots and having the other end thereof in communication with each of said second end wall slots, first blower means in said duct for blowing air directly into each of said compartments through said first end wall slots, a second glower means in said duct for drawing air directly from each of said compartments through said second end wall slots back into said duct, a vertically dsposed louver mounted adjacent each of said first end wall slots for directing flow of air from said duct toward the rear of said compartments, a vertically dsposed louver mounted adjacent each of said second end wall slots for drecting flow of air from the rear of said compartments back into said duct, and an air cooling means in said duct between said first and second blower means.

8. An apparatus of the character described comprising a plurality of horizontally dsposed storage compartments stacked one above another, each compartment having first and second vertical end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough extending from the front to the rear of said compartments, a closed duct exterior of said compartments, said duct having one end thereof in communication with each of said first end wall slots and having he other end thereof in communication with each of said second end wall slots, first blower means in said duct for blowing air directly into each of said Compartments through said first end wall slots, second blower stable baflie mounted on 6 means in said duct for drawing 'air directly froni each of said compartnients throughsaid second end wall slots back into said du t, a pluralit'y f vertically dsposed louvers mounted adjacent and along the length of each of said first end wall slots for directing flow of air from said duct toward the rear of said compartments, a plurality of vertcally dsposed louvers mounted adjacent and along the length of each of said second end wall slots for directing flow of air froni the rear of said Compartments back into said duct, and an air cooling means in said duct between said first *and second blower means.

9. An apparatus of the character described comprising a plurality of horizontally dsposed storage compartments stacked one above another, each compartment having first and second vertical end walls and a vertical front opening, each of said first and second end walls having a slot therethrough extending from the front to the rear of said compartments, a closed duct exteror of said Compartments, said duct having one end thereof in communica- -tion with each of said first end wall slots and having the other end thereof in communication with each of said second end wall slots, first blower means in said duct for blowing air directly into each of said compartments through said first end wall slots, second blower means in said duct for drawing air directly from each of said compartments through said second end wall slots back into said duct, an adjustable baflle mounted on said end walls adjacent each of said end wall slots and projecting into said duct for regulating the flow of air through each of said slots, vertically dsposed louvers mounted adjacent each of said first end wall slots for directing flow of air from said duct toward the rear of said compartments, vertically dsposed louvers mounted adjacent each of said second end wall slots for directing flow of air from the rear of said compartments back into said duct, and an air cooling means in said duct between said first and second blower means.

References Cited in the file of this patent Franklin Apr. 16, 1957 

